Trading War Stories
by asirnay
Summary: Callie and Addison ponder their future of their relationships with their significant others.


"Leave it to Mark Sloan to make pound cake into something dirty." Addison Montgomery sat comfortably on her patio; as her cat, Milo, laid in her lap. He purred as his owner stroked his reddish orange fur. The former Mrs. Sheppard firmly held her Blackberry in her other hand. Suddenly, she heard what appeared to be static. "Hello! Can you hear me? Everything sounds all fuzzy."

"Sorry about that." Callie Torres spoke louder than usual. She was multi-tasking, trying to make dinner while talking on the phone with her dearest friend. "I'm frying some fish. I guess I had the fire too high."

"What kind of fish?"

"Tilapia."

"Mmmm. It's been ages since I had any of your cooking."

"Mark would probably find a way to make that dirty too."

"He sure would. So how is the big ape anyway? Still back to being a manwhore?"

"No. That didn't last long. He had the nerve to say he wouldn't have started sleeping around again if I would've put out."

"Please tell me you slapped some sense into him."

"No, I took the high road. I just reminded him I was in a committed...relationship."

Addison took note of how Callie's tone suddenly shifted, followed by a wall of silence. "Hello? Cal? You still there?"

"Yeah." Torres sounded dry and flat.

"Are you alright?"

The former Mrs. O' Malley sighed. "No, not really."

"What's wrong then?"

"Arizona doesn't want kids."

"Cal..."

"Sometimes, I just like life is playing a cruel joke on me. I was having an awesome day..."

"Awesome? You never say awesome."

"Yeah, yeah. I know. I picked it up from Arizona." Callie used a spatula to flip over the frying pieces of fish. "As I was saying, I was having an awesome day. I was on fire. Mark and Bailey came to me for advice. They actually came to _me_, the girl who used to live in the hospital basement, for advice. I also had a breakthrough on my cartilage experiment. I basically told Arizona I wanted to spend the rest my life with her. I told her I wanted a house and a few kids running around in the yard. And she was on the same page. Except for the kids."

"Aw, man."

"She would rather have chickens running around in our yard over kids."

"Chickens?"

"Yeah, she...she's got this thing for chickens. I don't know. She can't explain it either."

"Ooookay. Well, are you guys over?"

"No, I didn't even tell her how I strongly I felt about having kids. I wasn't going to, at least not at the time. But, Mark kept insisting that I tell her."

"Hmmm. Maybe somebody else slapped some sense into him. So, did you ever tell her?"

"Yeah. She got home before I did. Soon as I got in, I sat her down. I took her by the hand and told how I felt. Then, she started freaking out."

"Well, what exactly did you say to her?"

"I,uh, told her that what I had to say was really hard because I really cared about her."

"Callie! No wonder the poor woman freaked out. You started off with the standard breakup speech."

"Yeah, I caught on to that. She actually thought I was going to tell her I was sleeping with Mark again."

"What made her think that?"

"I don't know. She probably felt threatened by our friendship all this time and never said anything. Arizona always holds stuff in. Then she gets to the point where everything just comes spewing out of her. She should know by now that she doesn't have anything to worry about. She never did. I learned my lesson from messing things up with Erica. Besides, me and Mark don't even look at each other like that anymore. We've both moved on from being fuck buddies. Well, we did end up kissing once after Erica left...before I even met Arizona. But, it didn't lead to anything."

"Really? You never told me that."

"There was nothing to tell. We were trying to keep ourselves occupied while a couple of interns were in hot pursuit for the both of us. Derek told Mark to stay away from Lexie at the time and Sadie had me in her sights."

"Sadie? Who the hell is Sadie?"

"Oh, um. She was one of Meredith's old friends. She was little off. A little pretentious too. You know when some people travel abroad and they pick up an accent from where ever they visited?"

"Yeah, I hate that. It's like they're showing off or something."

"Exactly. One minute, she's American. All of the sudden, she's British. Then Australian. I should've found that irritating, but it was insanely hot when she did that."

"Hmmph. Let me guess. She's blonde haired, blue eyed with pouty lips?"

"Yeah, how did you know?" Callie scooped up the tilapia out of the frying pan with the spatula, placing each piece upon a plate covered by a paper towel.

"Your taste in men was all over the map. But when it comes to women, you definitely have a type."

"The thought never even occurred to me."

"You know what's funny? One time, I had this dream about you and George. Izzie Stevens was trying to break you two up because she wanted you all to herself."

"That sounds more like a nightmare, if you ask me." Callie laughed as she poured a cup of dry brown rice into a pot on top of the stove.

"Well, at least she called you by the right name."

"Huh?" Torres' brow was furrowed with confusion as she poured water into the pot along with the rice.

"Pete. He called me Violet. He was sick and delirious with a high fever at the time, but I heard him say 'I love you, Violet' loud and clear."

"Ouch." The ortho surgeon stirred the contents of the pot after setting the heat to maximum. "Did you say anything to him about it?"

"Nope, I've successfully dodged him all day. Which is easy, now that his office is on another floor."

"Addie..."

"What? I avoid. I'm an avoider. That's what I do."

"The Addison I knew had flown all the way across the country to try and get her husband back."

"I'm not her anymore. Life kicked her in the ass one time too many."

"That's no excuse to accept less than what you deserve."

"Cal, if you only knew..."

"So, tell me then. This has to do with uh, what's-his-face...dammit, I'm usually good with names...wait, don't tell me...uh, Stan! Stan, right?"

"Sam."

"I was close."

"Yeah, sure." The two friends shared a laugh. "Maybe Sam and I are both accepting less than what we deserve. He's got a girlfriend now. She's a brilliant doctor. She's beautiful. I should be happy for them. But, all she really is to him is just a consolation prize because we can't be together."

"Because you're friends with the ex-wife."

"And for the life of me, sometimes I don't even know why. Naomi's upset with me over this, when all I've ever tried to do was the right thing. She's such a hypocrite. She dated one of Sam's friends right in his face!"

"That's not cool. Didn't she date your brother too?"

"Yeah, she has no moral high ground to stand on. You know where she is right now? She's in Geneva, with her boyfriend. She took the red-eye over there, right after she got involved with someone else."

"Why do you even speak to her still? She sounds horrible."

"She's one of my dearest friends, Callie. Present company included. I can't just give up on her so easily."

"You're a hell of a friend, Addie. And definitely a better woman than me. I don't know if I could be so forgiving."

"I think you can, Cal. You're a very loving person." Someone approaching the patio caught Addison's attention. Her heart thumped once she realized it was Dr. Pete Wilder. He carried his son, Lucas, firmly in one arm while carrying a bag of groceries with the other. Milo leaped from her lap and walked towards the house. "Cal? Can I call you back? I gotta go."

"Okay. Talk you later. Oh, yeah...Addie?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Love you, Cal."

"Love you, too."

After Addison ended her conversation with Callie, she took a deep breath and exhaled. Her lips curled up into a smile as Pete walked up the steps. Her smile grew even wider along with Lucas' when he looked at her. The dilema she found herself in didn't seem so bad when she got to take care of such a wonderful child. His mother, who relinquished her role as caretaker as soon he was born, was on a sabbatical. There was no indication if or when she would return. Addison could care less if Violet ever came back. The psychiatrist's affair with "The Captain", her father, was still somewhat of sore spot for her. Pete deserved better than a woman who abandoned her own child. Lucas deserved better.

"Hey," Pete gently placed the bag of groceries on the patio deck. "Where were you? I've been trying to reach you all day."

"I was at the hospital, remember?" Addison rose up from her seat and greeted her boyfriend with a kiss. She took Lucas and gently cradled him in her arms. The fiery redhead blew a raspberry kiss onto the infant's cheek. Lucas giggled and clapped with approval, prolonging the smile on her face. "I still got the case with the surrogate mother and the husband who keeps fighting to keep her on the ventilator. Am I wrong for wondering why he hasn't thrown in the towel yet?"

"He feels that he's still got something worth fighting for." Dr. Wilder caressed Addison's back. "Maybe he's right."

"I e-mailed her scans to Derek for a consult. He doesn't think there's anymore that can be done."

"Derek may be a brilliant surgeon, but that doesn't mean he has all the answers." Pete picked up the bag of groceries. "Come on. Let's go inside. I'm fixing dinner tonight."

Everything in that moment felt right to Addison. She didn't feel as if she was settling at all.

As Callie scooped the fully prepared brown rice into a bowl, she heard a set of keys jingling from the other side of the door. Arizona paused before she entered the apartment.

"Hey." The peds surgeon stood frozen in the doorway.

"Hey." Callie immediately noticed the fearful look in her girlfriend's eyes. "You hungry? Dinner's ready. I made tilapia."

"I'm not staying."

"Y-You're not?" The ortho surgeon's heart sank.

"No." Dr. Robbins spoke gently to cushion the blow. "I just came to get some of my things."

"Why?"

"Callie," Arizona never called Torres by her nickname. She was the only one, outside of family, who could get away with using Calliope. "I think it would be best, for the time being, if we gave each other some space."

"Ari...don't. you think we should talk about this? About the fact that I want a baby and you don't?"

"I do. I do. I just...I need some time. I want to talk to you about this, but I can't. I want to, but then I end rambling, like I did this morning about poundcake. Buttery, tasty poundacke...and see! I'm doing it again. So, please...give me some time. I don't know how to deal with this right now." The blonde haired beauty turned around to leave, even without her belongings.

"Ari, don't!" Callie felt momentary relief when Arizona paused before shutting the door. "Stay, just have some dinner. Think it over later."

"If I stay..." The peds surgeon looked back at her girlfriend with tearful eyes. "...then we're going to end up not going to talk about anything at all. You'll end up resenting me for it. You'll resent yourself for allowing it to happen." Arizona's heart began to sink as well as Callie stood in the kitchen with tearful eyes of her own. "It's better this way."

Dr. Torres never felt more helpless than she did when her girlfriend walked away and shut the front door behind her.

"No, it's not." She said to herself as a tear rolled down her cheek.


End file.
